Let me introduce myself! My name is Sarah, I'm in my early 30's, and I'm a quilter. I'm deeply passionate about what I do and I try to share that here on my blog and on my Instagram account. I love to play around with color and I participate in a weekly challenge called Color Play Friday. You can read more about it on my Color Play Friday Page. I also love to laugh and hopefully I can make some of you laugh with my How to Speak Like a Quilter page and my Mr.123Quilt Says... page. I hope you stay a while and take a look around.

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My Origin Story

So, what exactly is an origin story? If you’re a comic book nerd, you already know. For everyone else, it’s an account or back-story explaining the circumstances of how that character came to be; or in my case, it’s my story of how I became a quilter.

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away… Just kidding!!!

Okay, here’s the real story. I’ve been crafty for as long as I can remember. As a kid, I was deeply passionate about loom weave potholders, embroidery floss friendship bracelets, painting ceramics, crochet... the list goes on. Now, I don’t actually remember seeing my mom sew anything but I know she did because I vividly recall a pair of homemade, zebra striped hammer pants that were probably pretty cool back then. Hideous I tell ya! I do, however, remember her teaching me how to thread a sewing machine. So she must have taught me how to use it, right? Who knows, but I can say that after that I hoarded bits of fabric and made clothes for all my Barbie dolls.

Fast forward a few years to high school math class. I spent more time in class doodling on my graph paper than paying attention to the lessons. A lot of my doodles started to look like quilt patterns and one day I decided to actually make a quilt. It’s important to note that I didn’t grow up in a quilting household. I don’t think I had ever even seen or held a quilt in person before, so this attempt was met with a few sideways glances but I was determined. I got some supplies… and that’s that, a love affair was born.

My First Quilt

My first quilt in all her green and yellow glory! I had no idea what I was doing. Seriously, I was just winging the whole thing! Surprisingly, it’s held up really well over the years. It’s currently my “couch” quilt, so it gets a lot of use! I quilted on and off for several years until about 2012 when I needed a baby gift and thought a quilt would be a good idea. I really think that baby quilts need to come with a warning: “This is a gateway quilt into a life full of fabric and sewing addiction!” Anyway, there you have it, that’s my origin story!

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What's in a Name?

123Quilt... What does it mean? Honestly, one of the biggest hurdles I faced when I wanted to start blogging was picking a name. I wanted something catchy and easy to say, something memorable and unique, but everything I came up with was already taken. And I mean everything! I spent over a year searching for the perfect blog name. A year wasted!

I finally decided to start a "fake" blog just to test out the platform and see how things worked. Well, that needed a name too. It didn't have to be a good name, just a name to get me started. "Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start." ABC, do re mi... 123? 123Quilt? That was good enough for my "fake" blog. One thing led to another and my "fake" blog became my real blog. So, that's that. Will I re-brand in the future? Maybe. But for now I'm happy to be Sarah@123Quilt.

Blogging TipHave you ever wondered how to add those great html grab code boxes under one of your buttons? Oh, you have? Me too! Check out my blog button on the sidebar to see an example of a grab code box. I tried a few different ways and found an easy way to do it. If you’re familiar with adding a button to your side bar you should have no problem adding a grab code box. All we are going to do is add some <textarea> code. This will add the box and then whatever you want in the box is placed between the <textarea> elements. Trust me, you can do this.

Step 3: IMPORTANT!!! You have to change the < and the > in YOUR BUTTON CODE to its alphanumeric equivalent or this won’t work. What that means is every < in YOUR BUTTON CODE ONLY needs to be changed to &lt; and every > to &gt; for example:

<textarea rows=”3” cols=”20”>&lt;YOUR BUTTON HTML CODE&gt;</textarea>

NOTE: most button links have four < or > to change.

Also, you can change the width of the grab code box by changing the cols=”XX” number. Have fun and play around!

I really hope that made sense, if not just send me a message and I’ll help you through it!Quilting Tip
Scraps. We all have them! Some more than others! It's a good idea to trim your scraps into commonly used sizes. 2 1/2" squares, 5" squares, 2 1/2" strips are good examples of common sizes. This way you can easily work them into your projects. Do you have a scrap mountain rather than a small heap? I suggest trimming down just five scraps per sewing session; that way you won't get overwhelmed by all the trimming! Also, (I guess this is a bonus tip) you can use those scraps as a leader/ender project and pretty soon you'll have the makings of a new quilt top!

I sat down and made a list of all the quilts I want to make. That maybe wasn't such a good idea... Now I know that I have over 150 quilts on my bucket list. That's way too many!!! I have to do some paring down.

Do you have any quilty confessions? I would love to hear them.

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Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today! Please hop over to some of the other blogs in the 2016 New Quilt Bloggers Blog Hop. I’m in the Hive Sewciety Hive and here are the links to some of my fellow hive mates who have posted today!

47 comments:

Morning Sarah! What a great post to introduce you and your quilts - I have to say that little mini is just stunning ..... I found your blog name story really funny!! Thanks for the tip on a grab code button - will be sure to remember where it is for when I need to do one. Looking forward to staying in touch after the Blog Hop. x

Hi Sarah: I enjoyed getting to know you again, last years hop is all a blur. I might have to check out Japanese logic puzzles as I have never heard about them before. There is lots of rainbow goodness in your quilts. I love them all.

Sarah, So glad we signed up to do this and it has been so fun getting to know the bloggers, I have been at it all morning reading all the first post from all the groups. Love your celestial mini, the colors are beautiful and I really like how you have displayed it.

Sarah, I enjoyed this post so much :) I'm dying laughing over here. Baby Quilts:The Gateway drug to quilting. TOO FUNNY! and true. I've always thought your blog name was very catchy, so it was great to hear the story behind it. And thanks for the advice for the grab box. I need to write it down for future reverence.

Hi Sarah, so funny reading your blog, and lovely to get to know you. I love your Celestial Mini, beautiful fabrics. I do like your quilting tip, my scraps seem to be in a big jumble, but if I just do a little instead of trying a mountain it makes more sense.SmilesKate

Hi Sarah, I'm Carrie and I blog over at thezenquilter.blogspot.com. I really enjoyed reading your blog - you have a great style of writing. Your tip on trimming scraps is one I have tried to practice, but have basically failed miserably because I always try to trim too much at once and then I get annoyed and don't do it for a while. So trimming five at once is a fine idea. I also trim into rectangles, because I don't only like square shapes - sometimes I really really like HRT's. I like the Color Play Friday idea, gonna try to join that. consider me a new follower (as if I needed to follow another blog!)

Hi Sarah! This post is a great stop on the tour! Your personality shines through. How fabulous that you just decided to make a quilt all those years ago. Kudos to your mom and family for letting mm it happen. I will have to remember that when my ten year old wants to invent new recipes. Everyone starts somewhere, no directions or prior knowledge needed.

Your quilted works are lovely. So much eye candy. The amazing thing about Bill and Ted is that it still holds up and is watchable so many years after it was made. A true classic!

Very nice to meet you and I actually like the blog name so it was good to read the story behind it, I previously imagined it was something dramatic like a countdown- ready, set,go...Quilt. Japanese logic puzzle sounds like something i'd be very interested in, I should totally check it out and your Quilty confession is about right, I have patterns downloaded on all my gadgets that I can't even keep track. Lovely Quilts and lovely post well done.

Sarah, your post is so entertaining. I also grew up in a household with no quilters so no one understood my passion. Now, they all want a quilt. My quilt confession... I had such a stash of quilt kits that I thought I would get to but never did because I started wanting to make my own ideas. At the beginning of this year I donated 2 large bins of fabrics/ kits so I could make room for the things I really want to work on now.

So lovely to get to know more about you, Sarah! Thank you for helping us get the blog hop started. :)

Quilting confession: I don't have a bucket list. I kind of just go along.

Also, you are *totally* right about baby quilts being the gateway drug for quilting addiction. I also started quilting in high school and muddled along until the 2008 baby craze that pushed me in to full time obsession!

Sarah, what a wonderful post. I love the selection of quilts you share with us. And boy - do I relate to the let's-find-the-perfect-blog-name-and-find-that-everything-has-been-taken-already origin story. Luckily, you just settled for a name and made it your own. 150 projects on the bucket list? Wow, we perhaps could help you drawing straws =)

Thanks for sharing today! You caused me to think that I wonder how many quilts are on my bucket list...maybe I shouldn't venture to find out :) And thank you for the button code tip, I will definitely put that to use!

Great post! Love your story about how your blog name came about. My quilting confession....I have a long list of quilts I'd like to make too. The problem is I see quilts and just have to start them, but then get side tracked by another quilt I just have to make. So my bucket list has turned into a UFO list!

Hi Sarah! What a great story on your blog name. I too dealt with the name issue. I have been wanting to start a blog for ages, but every name I could think of was taken. I totally understand the extensive Want-To-Do list. I make one at least once a month and it changes constantly. If I did everything I wanted to do, I would have to be quilting about 70 hours a week for ages. :) But for now, I will just do what I want when I want and hopefully finish one or two.

I love that you have 150 quilts you want to make! I too have a long list. My confession: I got into blogging because I have a book coming out. HOWEVER, I didn't realize how much it would release me from my perfectionist show quilts. It's been a blessing!

Hi Sarah! I loved reading about your blog name and how you got into quilting. Your quilts are lovely so I'm sure I'll be back for more. My quilting confession: I used to have tons of scraps stored in small bags. These bags were stuffed everywhere. I recently bought a storage system and sorted the scraps into three sizes, but they sat there like that for months until recently when I needed scraps for a project. I find now that when I take a few scraps out and trim them to exact sizes such as 1-1/2, 2-1/2 and so on, I actually use them! So like you, I'm in the habit now of trimming fabrics a little at a time every once in a while. I still have tons of scraps but they no longer bother me.

I am not sure what a grab code button is. I would like to have one though, I think!!I also would like to add buttons that link my blog to my Instagram?And I would like to add a photo in my header bar, but I don't know how!!I enjoyed meeting you, and I love your quilts, the colors of fabrics!!!Thanks for the scrappy tip, I just love to use scraps!!Any suggestions?I would love for you to visit my blog:Vintagebloomsquiltdesigns.blogspot.com

So fun to read about your quilty origins and learn more about you! I too am a big fan of Jeopardy and historical fiction. We should swap titles! I wish I were still a new blogger so I could get in on a blog hop organized by Yvonne... she's hardcore!

Hi Sarah, Your "talk like a quilter" page cracks me up. I especially like SABLE. I attempted to add your button but my web pub page is acting weird so I'll go back later and give it another go. I love your blog! Mary

Love how you came up with your blog name. I have been jotting down possible blog names for a while now and every time I search one I see it's already taken. Wondering if you suggest registering your name. I saw something about that once when I googled how to start a blog. I'm hoping to create a blog next year when I retire but all the info I can get up front will be helpful. Unfortunately your html info was like reading a foreign language. I was looking for a translate button. I'm sure it will make sense once I get going at it. Your quilts are full of color and fun. Will continue follow you and be inspired.

Hi Sarah! That is a mighty big bucket list, but I can totally relate. That's what happens when you blog hop a lot. Your quilts are beautiful! I love the way you do an ombre effect! The whole idea of a "gateway quilt" is so relatable.

Nice to meet you. Love the name--don't change it. I think I am totally lost with your blogging tip although it's what I need help with so I guess I'll have to breakdown and show my husband because he can figure it out--he can figure anything out. Karen

I enjoyed learning more about you, your quilts and your blog in your introduction post. Baby quilts got me hooked, too, and I think they still might be my favorite excuse to make a quilt. I really like the pastel rainbow quilt in this post. Thanks for your blogging tips, too. I'm over in the Sewcial Network hive and I'm enjoying the new friendships and support.

What a fun post! Got so many folks writing nice comments. Your Xbox and Botox quilt top has a beautiful selection of colors. I've been wondering if teal and blue would go together and can see it does wonderfully. Best wishes!

That is the best Quilty Confession, ever!! 150 quilts?!?!?! I loved this post so much. I feel like I really got a glimpse of who you are Sarah. Gosh, I wish we could hang out in person, because you are undoubtedly incredibly fun. Maybe someday... :) XOXO, Steph

I really enjoyed reading your post and learned a ton about you! Pinterest has become my bucket list and it just keeps growing in so many ways and areas. LOL. Your quilts are lovely with all of the bright and lovely fabrics together. Thank you for sharing your tips and have a fantastic creative day!

I really enjoyed reading your post and learned a ton about you! Pinterest has become my bucket list and it just keeps growing in so many ways and areas. LOL. Your quilts are lovely with all of the bright and lovely fabrics together. Thank you for sharing your tips and have a fantastic creative day!

This is a great post introducing yourself. So great to "meet" you! That mini is too adorable! My quilting confession is, I have hundreds and hundreds of pinned quilts/miniatures/etc. Yeah. My quilting bucket list is quite daunting.

Oh my goodness! 150 on the bucket list! I think I have 6-10. But I do have about 35 WIPs. ;-) I have no shame. And I have a complete inability to just focus on these projects without starting more. Case in point, I finished two this week, but I have two more that I want to start (which are gifts for specific people). So much for working down my list. ;-)